The Cthulhu Hack

The Cthulhu Hack is a standalone game of investigation horror, pitting ordinary people against the sanity-shattering horrors of Lovecraftian gods and monsters. With an elegant dice mechanic and fast, player-focussed gameplay, The Cthulhu Hack is designed for quick and easy pick-up play. Updated with optional rules playtested over the year since the release of the first edition, it contains twice the originals content but remains more compact than a single chapter in many big book games of investigation horror!

Based on the hugely popular The Black Hack and the works of H P Lovecraft, The Cthulhu Hack uses a simple dice mechanic to emulate the dwindling investigative resources and sanity available to those intrepid sorts willing to put their lives and reputations on the line in pursuit of the Unmentionable and Unthinkable.

The 44-page core book offers:

simple mechanics to handle threats and investigation

read-to-play archetypes for quick pick-up play or a fast and flexible character creation system to tailor Investigators to your specific needs

a range of mechanics, both standard and optional, to tailor the game to your style - including Wealth, Fortune, Adrenalin and Shock

Paul Maclean - "The Cthulhu Hack… at The Breakfast Club we love it!" (Cthulhu Breakfast Club / Yog-Sothoth.com, at AireCon 4)

Steven Robert - "If you want at least a little bit of butt-kicking, or if you like tossing dice, The Cthulhu Hack is the clear choice." (RPGGeek)

Eric Dodd - "I welcome the appearance of The Cthulhu Hack to the crowded Lovecraftian RPG mantlepiece. If you liked the simplicity of Cthulhu Dark but felt you needed a few more tools and levers to build a game around, without having to track 40 or 50 skills or detailed weapon statistics, then The Cthulhu Hack might be just what you’re looking for." (RPGGeek)

Mike Hill - "The bottom line is that I will actually play this game. I download a lot of projects that never make it off the hard drive." (The World According to CARP)

Seems the new HD as Resource (HDR) document isn't quite complete. One of the usage examples is truncated that starts with "A robust investigator" ... ends with "reducing the attack to 9 damage, which means the player" ... which means the player what ? Figure it would have been nice to also have the details on healing when running HDR. I get that the character can heal 1HD daily by themself ... which would be a step up ... but what if they receive external healing, one step up ( limited at HD max ) per HD of the heal ? I'm looking at using HDR generally, I love that this removes yet another distinct mechanic from the game and makes things just that much more consistent.

Paul BNovember 25, 2017 5:26 pm UTC

PUBLISHER

Thanks for the catch - I have amended the section boundary to show the bit that was missing and added a bit of an experimental note about healing, which I leave to individual groups to tweak to taste.

Brilliant! Simple, yet structured enough to keep the game interesting. If you like The Black Hack (and usage dice for resources) and have an interest in Cthulhu Mythos (or want to learn more about it), buying this book should be a no-brainer. It contai [...]

Another fine member of the Black Hack family, this time adding Cthulhu to the mix. This game would work great for any sort of investigative or pulp/noir scenario, though, and not just Lovecraftian horror. The use of the Black Hack "resource die&qu [...]

If you don’t own Paul Baldowski’s The Cthulhu Hack, buy it now. In just a little more than 40 pages, The Cthulhu Hack gives you a complete game that launches its players into deadly conflict with the soul-shrivelling horrors of a [...]

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